Annai Meenambal Shivaraj was an Indian politician and social activist associated with the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidian politics in the Tamil-speaking regions of South India. The honorific Annai ("mother" in Tamil) reflects the regard in which she is held in the movement's history.
| Name | Annai Meenambal Shivaraj |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Meenambal Sivaraj |
| Region | Tamil Nadu, India |
| Field | Politics, social reform |
| Associated movement | Self-Respect Movement |
She was active in the social reform currents that took shape in the Madras Presidency during the early twentieth century, a period marked by campaigns against caste discrimination, the promotion of women's participation in public life, and the assertion of Dravidian identity in Tamil society.
Meenambal Shivaraj is remembered as one of the women leaders who participated in the Self-Respect Movement led by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. Her involvement reflected the movement's emphasis on social equality, rationalism, and the empowerment of women and oppressed communities.
She is recalled within Tamil political memory as one of the early women voices of the Dravidian and Self-Respect tradition, contributing to a broader movement that reshaped social and political discourse in Tamil Nadu through much of the twentieth century.